Page 16 - Pierce County Lawyer - May June 2024

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which is a high desert-like ecosystem of ranching and farming, we detoured only a mile off of the road onto a small track to a stoney outcrop. There, just beyond where we parked, were many ancient rock paintings that are thousands of years old. They are unguarded and unmarked. No one has desecrated them. We could’ve touched them if we’d wanted. We felt transported in time.
The Karoo was the one part of the itinerary that I wasn’t excited about. It was desert and desolate, and we were staying two nights at a farming and hunting lodge in cabins without electricity that were a distance from the main buildings. I hated the drive in for it’s curving mountain roads and steep cliffs,
the unexpected snow, and a strong biting wind that blew. We were warned to watch out for orangutans and to lock our doors tight so they couldn’t get in. As soon as we arrived my shoulder began to itch and I found a tick on my shoulder, vampiring my blood and sanity. Fortunately the Canadians were experienced tick removers and our hosts said SA ticks don’t carry diseases.
And here again, magic was present. These cabins were luxuriously decorated with thick down comforters, vases of wildflowers, a comfortable armchair, and velvet curtains. Ours had a big clawfoot tub. The water was heated by an outdoor wood burning boiler type contraption called a “donkey”.
I immediately started to draw a bath, but the water was unfiltered, untreated and full of red dirt. I gave up and griped awhile about a wasted claw foot tub.
A few hours later, dinner was served in the mess house several kilometers away. Susan, the lodge’s owner, previously worked
as a top chef and caterer. She and her partner, Jean, served up an excellent five course meal with complementing SA wines for each dish. Jean built the mess house which looked like a long western saloon complete with heat, Wi-Fi, a phonograph, books and fine china dishes. The two enormous farm dogs turned
out to be friendly puppies. Susan spoke Afrikaans, French and a little English. Jean spoke Afrikaans and more English. Their accents added to the romance of the setting and meal, and a decadent chocolate dessert involving cream and cake topped off the evening.
I slept soundly in the unheated cabin listening to the wind howling outside, and a little bit inside. Jean had built the cabins too. The next morning was again freezing cold, and I dreaded a miserable windy day of looking for birds that are smart enough to hunker down in bad weather. Jean lived with her parents on the neighboring farm where she’d grown up and said she’d be doing chores there all day. She offered to let me help. It was one of the best days of my life.
We loaded the dogs in the bed of the “bakkie”, (pick-up truck) and set off on rugged dirt trails through the karoo to her farm about 10 miles away. Jean told me about growing up there, working the farm, attending boarding school because there were no local schools, and knowing she always wanted to be
a farmer. She hated school and left at 16. She’d never been out of South Africa, never flown on a plane, and had only been to Johannesburg a couple of times. Her dream is to visit the Grand Canyon, then come back to the Karoo.
Part way to the farm she stopped, got out of the bakkie and told me to drive while she herded her sheep back toward the farm so they’d be home by evening. In SA the driver is on the right side of the car, and this bakkie was a stick shift. I felt so accomplished off-roading in an African desert to help my new friend on her farm. When we met at the farm, I asked if there were any dangerous or poisonous animals to watch for while walking. “Not really”, she said. “Just the cobras”.
At the farm we milked a cow and bottle fed some of the milk to a goat kid who had orphaned himself by refusing to hang out with his mom and twin. I helped Jean’s mom hold big goats by the horns while Jean trimmed their hooves. She told me
my hands would stink like goat for awhile, and she was right. We joined her parents for lunch in the small rustic kitchen. Her parents understood some English but didn’t speak it. They peppered Jean with questions to translate about life in the U.S. They can’t understand why Americans don’t all have free basic medical care. We discussed American TV shows and they told me about the dangerous years for white farmers after apartheid ended when the farmers were threatened, attacked and killed to try to get them to leave their farms. Reports list several thousands of these farmers being killed up through 2018, and some fear remains.
After lunch we fed sheep, and I got to bottle feed a lamb that was only a few days old. Its mother had abandoned it and a sibling in the karoo, so Jean dispatched the mom for her bad parenting. I wondered if we’d eaten her for lunch.
Later we returned to Susan’s ranch to stoke the hot water donkeys with firewood, and we had tea and homemade French pastries with her. Both women were interested in U.S. politics involving same-sex couples and puzzled over our local, state, tribal and federal jurisdictional considerations. Jean was delighted that her English was better than Susan’s since Susan had attended college and traveled extensively. While I don’t understand any Afrikaans, I knew Jean was razzing Susan for it. After tea, I went back to my cabin, took a hot, muddy red bath which was far preferable to smelling like goat, and read a book under the blankets until dinner.
There is so much more to tell about this trip, but the telling will never fully convey the experience. I’ve spared readers the giant spider episode, but also left out the eccentric museum house we stayed in, and the afternoon of reading in a sunny courtyard of fresh blooming lemon trees. My husband and my dad sailed on the Indian Ocean, we all stood at the Cape of Good Hope, and we quickly learned not to discuss Nelson Mandela with locals. South Africa is a place of still many unknowns, of beauty and simplicity, tension and hospitality, and serendipity that I call magic.
It was an adventure of a lifetime
Sarah Richardson is Division Chief in the Pierce County Prosecutor’s Office, Family Support Division.
16 PIERCE COUNTY LAWYER | May/June 2024